So Buoniconti, paralyzed playing linebacker for Citadel during a 1985 game, is grateful more than two decades of bad feelings and longing will end Saturday for himself and the players around him when his jersey is retired by the school.
"That in itself was something I had never thought about myself," Buoniconti said by phone from Miami this week. "My teammates, the guys out there with me, were affected, too."
Buoniconti will have his number 59 jersey retired during a halftime ceremony of Citadel's game with Chattanooga. It's expected to draw between 50 or 60 of his ex-teammates, along with his father, Hall of Fame linebacker Nick Buoniconti, and other friends and family.
The school's board of visitors voted to honor Buoniconti this past winter, and Buoniconti was back on campus last March for Corps Day, the school's birthday celebration. He also attended a spring football scrimmage.
Buoniconti, though, knows this week's ceremony is his first time facing the school's football community since his accident and the legal battle that ensued.
"You know there's always nervousness," Buoniconti said. "Yes, I'm excited. I feel very welcome. But this is being back on the field. This is really in front of the eyes of the school. It has it's own different emotions."
Buoniconti, his family and others founded The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, a group that's raised more than $200 million since that fateful day when the teenager's life changed forever.
Buoniconti was 19 and a 220-pound, hard-hitting linebacker when Citadel played at East Tennessee on October 26, 1985. Buoniconti and fellow linebacker Joel Thompson rushed in to stop a sweep on third-and-1 when Buoniconti collided with the ball carrier. Buoniconti says he instantly knew he was paralyzed.
Thompson said in March the players didn't find out until much later that "because of breathing difficulty, Marc almost died on the field."
Buoniconti sustained a broken C-3 vertebra, a severe spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down.
He spent a year in the hospital. Then Buoniconti filed a negligence suit against the college, including the team doctor and trainer. The Citadel and its trainer reached an $800,000 settlement during the 1988 trial.
The court case distanced Buoniconti from the school and, he says now, some of his teammates.
Thompson first made Buoniconti aware of that when the two met last year, a meeting that would eventually lead Thompson to call Citadel administrators about welcoming back Buoniconti.
More recently, former teammate and NFL kicker Greg Davis caught up with Buoniconti during a convention The Miami Project held in Las Vegas. Davis was writing a book about his life and included a section about Buoniconti, his injury and the aftermath.
"That really showed me what it did to those guys, torn between the teammate they loved and the school they loved," Buoniconti said.
On his last visit, Buoniconti sought trainer Andy Clawson to talk and put aside past problems. Afterward, Buoniconti called Clawson a "great person" and a "great trainer."
Buoniconti said this week mistakes were made. "I'm not saying who made the mistakes," he added. "This may be the more difficult emotional route. But it's the right thing to do and we're all going to be better people because of it."
Citadel athletic director Les Robinson held the same position at East Tennessee and was at the field when Buoniconti was paralyzed. Robinson says the entire Citadel family should feel good about Buoniconti's return.
Buoniconti will address the current Bulldogs on Friday.
"I told Marc about talking to the team: 'OK, the pressure's on. We need a victory speech,'" Robinson said.
"'Oh no,'" Buoniconti replied, "Don't do that to me."
The Citadel enters the game 0-3. However, two of the Division I-AA team's losses came at Texas A&M and Pittsburgh.
Buoniconti's framed jersey will hang in the Seignious Hall, site of the school's football offices. Television crews from ESPN and HBO will be there to capture Buoniconti's return.
Buoniconti has thought about entering the field again and what he'll say to the crowd.
"I hope it's a warm reception," he said. "I thought it was difficult getting three minutes to introduce my dad into the (Pro Football) Hall of Fame. Getting 45 seconds to express my feelings on that day is going to be a tough task. But I'll do my best."
(Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
